The end of one era and the beginning of another will overlap at Glorious Goodwood this week, as Seamus Buckley, the track’s clerk of the course for nearly a quarter of a century, oversees the meeting for the last time and it breaks fresh ground with three Group One events spread over the next five days.
There are changes to the familiar schedule too, with the Goodwood Cup, to be run this year as a Group One contest for the first time with over £500,000 in the prize fund, now the feature event on Tuesday’s opening card. With the Nassau Stakes switched from Saturday to Thursday, the first three afternoons now have a Group One feature event.
The driving force behind Goodwood’s rapid progress in recent seasons is fairly simple: money. This is the third year of a 10-year sponsorship deal with Qatar, whose branding is everywhere at this flagship meeting.
The sponsors have already delivered once on their promise in 2014 that any event at the meeting promoted to Group One status would receive a guaranteed half-million pounds in prize money, and they will do so again if, or when, Tuesday’s Lennox Stakes finally makes the step up to Group One level.
That would edge Glorious Goodwood ahead of the Ebor meeting at York this month in terms of the number of Group Ones it stages and give it a claim, at least, to stand second only to Royal Ascot in the hierarchy of the British Flat season’s major meetings. They may scoff at that idea in Yorkshire and in any case the tracks are not competing for a league title. Instead the considerable and increasing success of all the summer’s major Festival meetings is a sign that racing, at the highest level at least, is back on an upward curve. And it is also positive news, for Goodwood in particular, that events in the Gulf – where Dubai, the home of the Godolphin operation, is part of a Saudi-led blockade of Qatar – do not seem to have spilled over on to the turf.
The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, recently threatened to impose a jail sentence of up to 15 years on individuals found to have expressed “sympathy” for Qatar in the current standoff. That does not seem to extend to Godolphin’s horses supporting Qatar-sponsored races this week, however, and the royal blue colours will be prominent throughout the meeting, most notably when their excellent miler Ribchester takes on Churchill, the 2,000 Guineas winner, in Wednesday’s Sussex Stakes.
Glorious Goodwood has the horses, the races, the money and an almost impossibly perfect setting on top of the South Downs. The one thing it cannot guarantee is the weather, and an unsettled forecast will keep Buckley on his toes.
The ground dried out from good-to-soft to “just on the soft side of good” on Monday, according to Buckley, but significant rain is forecast with some confidence on Wednesday evening and it could yet be good-to-soft, or worse, by the time Winter, the dual 1,000 Guineas winner, goes to post for Thursday’s Nassau Stakes.
The forecast is better for the opening day, however, when Big Orange, probably the most popular Flat horse in training, will attempt to become the first horse in the Goodwood Cup’s 205-year history to win the race three years running.
Big Orange’s best form, which includes his first Group 1 success in the Gold Cup at Ascot in June, has come on faster ground, but he is an odds-on chance after Dal Harraild, the second-favourite, was ruled out on Monday along with Simple Verse, the 2015 St Leger winner. Big Orange will also be reunited with Frankie Dettori, who missed the ride at Ascot due to injury. Victory for Big Orange and his equally popular jockey would get Goodwood’s new era off to the perfect start.
Tuesday’s tips by Greg Wood
Beverley
2.00 International Man 2.35 Cool Music 3.10 Arcavallo 3.45 Musharrif 4.20 Zodiakos 4.55 Relight My Fire 5.30 John Caesar 6.00 Indian Chief
Goodwood
1.50 Garcia 2.25 Seahenge 3.00 Librisa Breeze (nb) 3.35 Stradivarius 4.10 Algam 4.45 Boom The Groom (nap) 5.15 Ghadaayer
Perth
5.50 Man Look 6.20 Chieftain’s Choice 6.55 An Fear Ciuin 7.30 Russian Regent 8.00 Pinotage 8.30 Cuirassier Dempire 9.00 River Icon
Worcester
5.05 Cole Harden 5.40 Abidjan 6.10 Viking Mistress 6.40 Supreme Steel 7.15 State The Obvious 7.50 Poetic Lady 8.20 Amanto
Yarmouth
1.40 Midnight Wilde 2.15 Hope Is High 2.50 Retribution 3.25 The Yellow Bus 4.00 Anna Medici 4.30 Tigerfish 5.00 Huntsmans Close 5.35 Nag’s Wag
